Ex-Apple lawyer accused of profiting from confidential info

U.S. authorities are accusing a former Apple attorney of brazenly breaking insider trading rules that he helped draft, while profiting from stock sales and investments that he made after receiving confidential information about the company’s finances.

The allegations against Gene Levoff emerged in criminal and civil complaints filed Wednesday in a New Jersey federal court.

The Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission estimated Levoff realized gains and avoided losses totalling more than $600,000 in illegal trades periodically made from 2011 to 2016. Levoff was a top attorney in Apple’s corporate law department from 2008 until the company fired him last September.

Levoff’s lawyer, Kevin Marino, said his client plans to fight the allegations.

Apple said it conducted its own investigation after being alerted by authorities last summer.